Which of those?He wont race for TL, and LRGP despite being possible is a wild chance even for third driver role.

Edit: On an unrelated note, yesterday we had 4th death in less than two months here in Brazil. Two of those on karts.This state of affairs of CBA is scandalous. The entity must regulate those competitions accordantly. It's beyond dangerous so far.

Brazilian GT3 and GT4 will have the following schedule:Interlagos - April 10thAnhembi - May 1st (together with Indycar)Santa Cruz do Sul - May 22ndCuritiba - May 22ndLondrina - June 6thSanta Cruz do Sul - June 6thCampo Grande - July 24thCuritiba - July 24thJacarepaguá - August 28thInterlagos - September 11thCuritiba - October 23rdCampo Grande - October 23rdSan Luís (Argentina) - November 6thLondrina - November 13thInterlagos - December 18th

Racing Festival: Troféu Linea / Fórmula Futuro

Schedule:Interlagos - May 8thBrasília - June 12thLondrina - July 17thInterlagos - August 14thCuritiba - September 25thVelopark - October 30th

Fórmula Truck

Schedule:Santa Cruz do Sul - February 27thJacarepaguá - April 3rdCaruaru - May 15thGoiânia - June 5thInterlagos - July 3rdLondrina - August 7thBuenos Aires (Argentina) - September 4thGuaporé - October 9thCuritiba - November 6thBrasília - December 4th

Copa Petrobrás de Marcas

Image unavailable

Schedule:Curitiba - May 29thTarumã - June 12thSão Paulo - July 17thJacarepaguá - July 31stVelopark - August 21stJacarepaguá - September 25thBrasília - October 30thCuritiba - November 20th

I'm still surprised the F3 Codasur hasn't disappeared after a decade of decadence.
Hopefully in the future we can see the Copa de Marcas and TC2000 making races together, that if they have the exact same rules, of course.
¿Are the GT cars built in Brazil or just imported European GT3s?

I'm still surprised the F3 Codasur hasn't disappeared after a decade of decadence.

It is supported by Petrobras for a while now, and it became a Brazilian F3 (kind of), grids are very small, the last relevant champion was a Piquet Jr(!) in 2002 and it is badly covered. I believe that the only reason for its continued existence it's that it was for many years the only survival open wheel series in Brazil, and it still cheaper than moving to Europe. As sponsorship is always very difficult, wining it may attract one or other sponsor, and could be a chance to arriving at British or Italian F3 with some experience.

But at the end I think it's the drivers. Only that. Those kids that want to move to start a career in Europe but are unable at the moment.

Hopefully in the future we can see the Copa de Marcas and TC2000 making races together, that if they have the exact same rules, of course.

That would be great, and I believe that there's some forces moving in this direction. It would be unwise not to do so.But everything about this new series still very secretive. Tomorrow the category will be officially launched, some drivers of Stockcar will be announced and I hope that the full regs will be disclosed. The season will start on May and it wasn't revealed to the public if all cars will be raced with Berta's.

¿Are the GT cars built in Brazil or just imported European GT3s?

AFAIK, its a mix of both. Some cars are "of the shelve" and some others are kind of customized here. All of them are imported GT3/GT4 models by nature, but as the local regulations vary a bit from the european ones, some modifications can be made. But the main force of Brazilian regs are in order to keep costs down.

This year there will be five local drivers in F3 (Nars, Cunha, Derani, Fantin and Foresti), Victor Guerin at Italian F3 and Cézar Ramos and andré Negrão at WSR and only Luiz razia at GP2.

This situation has being heavily discussed here in Brazil. I can assure you that a great factor behind all of this is the bad management of the Brazilian Autosport Confederation (CBA) that is beyond ridiculous, the lack of interest in motorsport in general (in the country) and, because of that, the lack of sponsorship.

Another movement that have being quite hurting (paradoxically) is the growth of tourism championships, like stock car for instance. Ezequiel may have a word about it, but I believe that a similar thing has happened in Argentina.

I've said this in this same thread before but I repeat that Austria 2001 and 2002 together with Germany 2010 have disappointed and scared many viewers away. Also, of course, Singapore 2009 killed a lot of respect the the audience had for these gentlemen.

Besides all of this, a whole generation of promises and expectations was 'wasted' before our eyes: B. Senna, NAP, Di Grassi... we may move back to the years of Pizzonia.

The prospect of having one or no driver at F1 is not something unexpected.Brazil may suddenly become the next France for the sport.

^^It could be worse: Brazil could become the new Argentina I think in the end it reduces to the local motor racing management. In Argentina a crucial point was when the Asociación Corredores Turismo Carretera (ACTC) splitted from the Automóvil Club Argentino (ACA). A furious competition started between both with each of them creating "unnecessary" championships to compete against each other. Even in the late 90s the drivers that raced in a series ruled by the ACTC couldn't do it in a series ruled by the ACA and viceversa. Thankfully that ridiculous situation stopped. The thing is that the business of a few was privileged over the quality of the sport so nowadays the big four championships in Argentina are all tin tops and three of them are just too similar: TC2000, Top Race and Turismo Nacional. That is no sport cars, no formula cars (the main championship is Formula Renault with 150 bhp and steel tubular chassis...) and a huge level of standarization (Top Race is a silhouette series, TC2000 has spec engines, same wheelbase for every car, etc.)
Turismo Carretera is the only one with the potential to be HUGE, even internationally I dare to say, but it is so wasted and manipulated that motor racing, once clearly the second more popular sport behind football, nowadays it's not so much popular than tennis or even basketball.
But, maybe considering the situation in other countries, we should be thankfull to have something yet.

I think if we were clever, instead of making a new championship like Copa de Marcas, TC2000 and Stock Car V8 should have continued their collaboration and perhaps doing a DTM+Super GT, unifying the rules, backing up each other to become an international force, not making a single championship but having the chance to make races together, etc. Top Race shouldn't exist and F3 should offer something more spicy and in order to reduce costs they should race with cars developed in Brazil or Argentina (Berta built a carbon fiber monocoque F3 car in the late 80s, I'm sure they could it now) as the euro is overvalued (is that the right word?) in relation to the Real and the Peso (a young Argentine driver said once that with the budget needed to make half a season in F3 Codasur he could make the whole TCPista (feeder series to TC) season)

I got a feeling Cesar Ramos is gonna be Brasil next big shot ! Not bad at all in racing after spending four years as a driver in Italy. Definitely someone to count on the upcoming WSR season.

In OW, Ramos is the one for a hold bigger expectations. This WSR season will be crucial for him, this one and next year will be make or break for his aspirations of a career as a top driver.

^^It could be worse: Brazil could become the new Argentina I think in the end it reduces to the local motor racing management. In Argentina a crucial point was when the Asociación Corredores Turismo Carretera (ACTC) splitted from the Automóvil Club Argentino (ACA). A furious competition started between both with each of them creating "unnecessary" championships to compete against each other. Even in the late 90s the drivers that raced in a series ruled by the ACTC couldn't do it in a series ruled by the ACA and viceversa. Thankfully that ridiculous situation stopped.

I believe in it too, unfortunately this is the aspect of the state of affairs with less chance of improvement.Deep corruption and unbearable incompetence dooms any chance of a stable, organized and respectable championship. This is the main reason for sponsors not wanting to risk their precious money in a category. That's also why homologation of even a kart project is so expensive and also why tons of money are wasted in every possible way bar the necessary ones. If it was expensive but effective I wouldn't complain, but we had deaths last year related to lack of inspection and regularization. Some federations inside the confederation are antagonistic rivals, some are too much privileged in detriment of others and some federatios barely exist as an organized entity.

And it's not only about them, the main tracks are state owned and the conservation of these tracks is dreadful, really horrible. Jacarepaguá was abandoned beyond recuperation, some tracks are dangerous and even Interlagos just looks good once in a year (see the grass).

In the past, we had a serious Brazilian F1 team with a Brazilian champion behind the wheel and this project perished because of lack of sponsors, I'm always surprised that some companies are keen to invest in championships as bad organized as those we have here.

[...]Turismo Carretera is the only one with the potential to be HUGE, even internationally I dare to say, but it is so wasted and manipulated that motor racing, once clearly the second more popular sport behind football, nowadays it's not so much popular than tennis or even basketball.But, maybe considering the situation in other countries, we should be thankfull to have something yet.

More and more F1 is becoming a geek thing here.

I think if we were clever, instead of making a new championship like Copa de Marcas, TC2000 and Stock Car V8 should have continued their collaboration and perhaps doing a DTM+Super GT, unifying the rules, backing up each other to become an international force, not making a single championship but having the chance to make races together, etc. Top Race shouldn't exist and F3 should offer something more spicy and in order to reduce costs they should race with cars developed in Brazil or Argentina (Berta built a carbon fiber monocoque F3 car in the late 80s, I'm sure they could it now) as the euro is overvalued (is that the right word?) in relation to the Real and the Peso (a young Argentine driver said once that with the budget needed to make half a season in F3 Codasur he could make the whole TCPista (feeder series to TC) season)

That would be the final solution, I believe: technical independence. It's unconceivable to me that nowhere in South America could exist a viable solution for production of cheaper monocoques. Carbon fiber stills a rare thing! As you've said, TC2000 and Copa de Marcas should have strictly the same regs, but more relaxed. Stock car is more a NASCAR wannabe, let they follow that path, its truly relevant path ended when Mitsubishi and Volkswagen left the series. Returning, collaboration between both countries, that already healthily exists, should be more encouraged. That could keep costs down and develop the engineering quality of the professionals of both sides of border.

- Third manufacturer is not VW and not Toyota, its Ford, kind of unexpected for me;- Astra?! Really Chevrolet?! I'm guessing they will be replaced by Chevy Cruze next season, the car is yet to be launched for Brazilian market. Awkward anyway;- I'm kind of unimpressed at the moment, specially with the weekend format;- More expensive than I've thought;- Kia preferred to sponsor football, Fiat was uneasy because of their already established Troféu Linea,, VW and Toyota probably don't give a damn about it.

[quote name='highdownforce' date='Mar 14 2011, 13:57' post='4894176']
In OW, Ramos is the one for a hold bigger expectations. This WSR season will be crucial for him, this one and next year will be make or break for his aspirations of a career as a top driver.

They are a little late, this should have came out by December last year, IIRC. But now we finally have a date for April.AFAIK, it uses rfactor engine, so those familiarized with this plataform won't have problems to give it a chance.The great merit of this sim is to portrait the Brazilian tracks, many of them to very well known out side the country. I just don't beleive that those tracks will be pictured on their true state of conservation.

Anyway, it's always good to have this kind of project. And that picture of Cacá Bueno's Red Bull car in Jacarepagua shows that the game is surprisingly very detailed.

Maybe the pictures deceive me, but I remember how the Stcok Car V8 cars looked a few years ago and they seemed to have improved a lot in general "presentation" (I assume the same in construction quality)

Teh cars were updated for the 2009 season following safety concerns after Sperafico's death in 2007.Here there is a good article in English about it. http://www.racecar-e...of-copa-nextel/Those car had their engines updated since them, IIRC they're on 520-540hp for now.

Peugeot's bubble have being updated for this season, and I've noted a growing trend in livery efforts too with some publicity companies specialized on this kind of branding. Now there are even livery presentation events for some teams. This movement is starting to grown in GT3 too.

I've the impression that the cars from Copa Montana (Stock car second division and Sondermann's series) were the ones if greatest aesthetics improvements but still being really outdated cars when safety is concerned.

I popped off to see British F3 yesterday and I was rather impressed with what Nasr is doing so far this year. Apart from Race two yesterday, Nasr has been faultless this season. Foresti looks very promising as well, looked great at Oulton and both possible stars in the making.

I popped off to see British F3 yesterday and I was rather impressed with what Nasr is doing so far this year. Apart from Race two yesterday, Nasr has been faultless this season. Foresti looks very promising as well, looked great at Oulton and both possible stars in the making.

They are very good prospects indeed. Both are on their second year on Britsh F3 (Nasr was 5th and Foresti 13th in 2010). Nasr now with Carlin is expected to walk it. Besides his contacts with Double R suggests that he has a path to GP2 secured (if everything works good), he is also the is the only one from the four Brazilian to have an European title (F-BMW Europe). Foresti doesn't have this kind of connections by now, but we expect him to have some luck this year in these matters.

It's a good surprise to have them in good form.

______

Edit: Btw, I haven't posted about Stock Car Brasil lately. I've no time for a photo compilation, but I'll give you some videos:

This weekend we'll have São Paulo Indy 300 but also the very first street race for Brazilian GT3 and GT4.I must say that I'm curious to see how GT3 will perform on the marginal straight - drivers are talking about 250-270 km/h - and also how all those cars will negotiate T1.

Brasileiro de Marcas, a.k.a. Copa Petrobrás de Marcas, has finally debut this season, at Tarumã/RS with 20 cars.

I haven't watched the race but the reception seams to be pretty positive. The cars look quite clean at the moment without many stickers as I've imagined but it can be successful. Are those already jumping the gun and saying that maybe this championship has the potential to kill the Copa Montana series, but as this championships are organized by the same group (also the same as Stock Car) I don't see this happening.

Anyway, it's good to see bug names from Brazilian Tourism series involved. And despite being less powerful cars - sourced from TC2000 - when compared to Stock Car's monsters - this series could attract more attention in the future, with its full coverage and better link with the road cars image.

thanks for bringing this info´s to the forum.
Do you know what the engine situation in the new series is?
Is it similar to TC2000, mean different engines from different tuners, or is it like StockCar,
where all teams use a common (controled) engine.
Are the Hondas using NBE Honda engines and the Cheverolets Spiess (Opel) engines (like in TC2000)
or are they all Berta Fords based engines like in Sudam F3?

Does Copa Petrobrás de Marcas has any good TV coverage like StockCar on Globo or is it more like GT3?

Hi, TC3000. I'm sorry for not seeing your reply earlier, but I'll try to help you this late anyway.

Unfortunately , TC2000 currently uses also spec Berta engines, the very same used for the Brasileiro de Marcas. IIRC, based on those F3 ones.

About TV coverage, it's actually the same situation: In 2010 GT3 was on RedeTV, but now it's with Band and Speed. Now it's Copa Petrobrás that has the coverage from RedeTV. First race is shown in video tape and the second one is broadcasted live.

I hope this information stills helpful for you!

• • •

Btw, this weekend we'll have the 6th round of Stock Car in Jacarepaguá, it's possibly the last (or one of the last) time that StockCar races in the circuit.The championship is currently tainted after the Red Bull Racing Team have been unfairly penalized because of an error on the speed limit detection on the pit lane on the last round.

RBR had complained about dodge or mistaken decisions from the federation last year and they had already threated to abandoning the series. For this race, the team will sport a black livery in sign of protest against both the promoters and the confederation.

This is Xandinho Negrão Medley Full Time Sports' car at Morro do Adeus, within the Complexo do Alemão on one of Stock Car PR events.

Edit: Off course it's a PR event where Military hellicopters where used for security, off course the city lobby wants to save its face, off course the situation changed but it's far from ideal... But even then seeing one of these cars parked in a place that one of locals described as where executions were done is a strong image.

Thanks Highdownforce,your effort & help is much appriciated.I did not know, that TC2000 now runs on common/mandated engines as well.It´s a bit sad, but I guess good from a cost perspective.

I have got the same information, you give me here, it´s a common Berta enginefor all, from what I hear a bit less powerful then the TC2000 engine.But I´m not sure about.

Obrigado

De nada!

The technical side of things from the Brasileiro de Marcas is quite masonic. As a matter of fact, everything about this series stills half obscure to the general public, not much is talked about it.I believe that this tren will possibly change with time but even journalists seen to be taken by surprise with some news of the series.

By the way, I've almost forgotten it, one ex-f1 driver may race the August 7th round "Corrida do Milhão" of Stock Car at Interlagos. The organization of the series, Vicar, is contacting Pedro Lamy and ..... Jacques Villeneuve!

the British or the American version? I think the American version was/is made by History Channel,

I'll wait till they release a Xbox360 version. If they do.

I don't think so, this is more like a "hardcore" PC sim, and they are very small (Reiza), so I don't think they could make it viable to spend money making it work on the Xbox, paying fees to MS for a game that have a limited audience in my opinion...

but the game is very well made and detailed, 30 USD is quite cheap, if you have a good steering wheel,